Hollywood legend W.C. Fields strongly discouraged working with animals or children. In fact, when he was asked whether he liked children, he responded, “Ah, yes...boiled or fried.” Perhaps working with the lovely and oh-so talented Dakota Fanning would have changed his mind.
At nine years old, the Conyers, Georgia native (also the birthplace of Holly Hunter) is remarkably mature for her age. On the set of the Mike Myers’ comedy The Cat in the Hat, Fanning is wearing a lime green dress, looking very much like a little kid, but she quickly puts that notion to rest when she approaches, hand outstretched for a firm handshake, noting that her previous interview with Venice in support of I Am Sam two years ago was her first-ever interview.
“A lot has happened since then,” she reports. Indeed. Her award-winning performance opposite Sean Penn in I Am Sam turned industry heads and brought Hollywood to her doorstep. Significant parts in Trapped, Sweet Home Alabama , and the Steven Spielberg-produced mini-series “Taken ” appear on her resumé.
This month, Fanning stars opposite Brittany Murphy in MGM’s Uptown Girls, playing a precocious, uptight eight-year-old going on 40, who’s obsessed with germs and living her life as perfectly as possible. A definite scene-stealer, Fanning instantly won over her co-star. “Forget about age,” says Murphy, “Dakota is one of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever met in my entire life. To have her as a friend is pretty amazing. She’s so wise, über-intelligent – just a joy!”
The youngest actor ever nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award (for her performance in I Am Sam), Fanning is no stranger to playing serious onscreen. “Pretty much all my movies I’ve been serious, but this is actually the first one where it was a comedy,” she says of her Uptown Girls experience.
Another first, according to Fanning, was getting to ‘flip the bird’ in Uptown Girls. “It was something I had to do for a movie, for a movie!” she exclaims while grinning ear to ear.
Fanning also won’t soon forget riding the Coney Island teacups 15 times. “One time we went really fast and Brittney and I were on it and it went faster than it had on any of the other takes and when we stopped everything was moving. But I love rides and I love amusement parks.”
She also loved climbing ruins in Mexico recently while filming Man on Fire for director Tony Scott, and she was thrilled to be working alongside Denzel Washington, Christopher Walken, Radha Mitchell, and Marc Anthony.
When asked to describe her favorite aspect of acting, the young actress gives the question some serious thought, then quickly answers, “Meeting new people and reading different scripts, and getting the opportunity to be somebody different for a day; for a couple of months. It’s something that I love to do.”